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You’ve probably heard of white privilege – the term for the advantages that you automatically experience if you’re a white person. But have you heard of thin privilege?

The first, most important thing to know about privilege is that just because you have it doesn’t mean that your life has been easy. Being thin or white doesn’t mean that you’re life *isn’t* hard. It’s just means that your body size or your skin colour isn’t making it any harder.

You can be thin, white, rich and talented and still struggle. You could be poor, fat, Black, disabled and gay and still have a charmed life. But statistically it’s less likely.

So, thin privilege. As you might be able to guess from the words ‘thin’ and ‘privilege’, it’s an expression for the benefits that come with being thin, or specifically, not being fat.

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Those benefits are things like being more likely to get hired (being obese is proven to impact on your ability to get hired), avoiding abuse from strangers, being able to fit comfortably on planes and trains without worrying about needing seat belt extenders or having to move the arm rest, and without panicking that someone will make a comment about your body.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Other examples of thin privilege are being able to eat in public without being shamed for it, and being able to shop in standard High Street brands and knowing that they’ll stock your size (something which people who are a size 12, 14 and 16 experience, despite possibly not regarding themself as thin.

Just like with white privilege, where you can be ‘white passing’ (aka light skinned and less likely to be racially profiled) you can be ‘thin passing’ which means that even if you’re not skinny you’re not big enough that people notice, make comments or have unexplained rage towards you.

Being a medium size person comes with a measure of thin privilege, which isn’t a binary but exists on a sliding scale.

Cora Harrington, author and lingerie expert took to Twitter to explain what thin privilege is. If you’re still confused about what it means, check out her thoughts here.

Whenever the word ‘privilege’ is used it’s tempting to have a knee jerk reaction and want to defend yourself. But try to remember, it’s not an insult or a failing. There’s nothing wrong with having privilege. Most of us have a measure of it. All anyone is asking is that you’re aware of it, and that you try to use that awareness to overcome the prejudices that we all have ingrained inside us.